Croatia and Czechia play out a boring 0-0 draw in Prague during World Cup qualifying. The Vatreni remain top of group with superior goal differential plus a game in hand.
-Perišić had a tough game, skying 2 shots over the crossbar
-Marco Pašalić played 30 minutes and had a fantastic shot and cross into the box
-Croatia played passive from the opening whistle and let Czechia come to them. Dalić will be happy with the result.
Next game: Sunday vs. Gibraltar in Varaždin
FT: 0-0 Final. We should have scored a goal but this is great road result in what was scheduled as our toughest game.
80′: Marco Pašalić with a strong shot from the cusp of the box. Keeper makes the save but that is what we need! If he shoots 2 yards to the right it’s a goal.
75′: Marco Pašalić with a great cross to Perišić in the box but the PSV man heads it straight to the keeper.
62′: SUBS! Ivanović comes in for Budimir. Marco Pašalić comes in for Mario Pašalić. Finally! Please God score a goal to prove CroatianSports right!
HT: 0-0 at halftime. Absolutely snooze fest. Czechia has been the better team and Croatia is letting them come into the attacking third. Perišić should have done much, much better with both shots in the box. Not sure if Budimir has even touched the ball yet. Croatia have yet to register a shot on goal yet.
37′: Jakić with a wonderful run into the box! He lays it off to Perišić who skies the ball well over the cross bar AGAIN! He scores that 4/10 times.
32′: Modrić feeds Perišić in the middle of a busy box but Perišić skies the ball into the 25th row. Could have done better if it was on frame.
30′: Nothing from Croatia offensively. Livaković sees the ball well to parry away a Czech free kick from 20 yards out. The ball bounces in the box of Gvardiol’s arm following a deflection. Czechia argues for a penalty but you can’t give it in that situation.
10′: Czechia on the front foot and pressing forward early in the match. Remember, a draw really doesn’t help them much as Croatia have a game in hand.
The Vatreni take the field Thursday night in Prague in what was always going to be their toughest World Cup qualifier this campaign. A win and Croatia will have one foot qualified for the 2026 World Cup next summer in North America. A draw would not be the end of the world by any means with three matches left again Gibraltar, Faroe Islands and Montenegro. A loss vs.Czechia would make things interesting in Group L as Czechia would then own a 3-point advantage (however, Croatia have a game in hadn’t and far superior goal differential.)
The starting lineup I’d personally like to see against Gibraltar:
Kotarski
Gvardiol – Šutalo – Vušković – Smolčić
P. Sučić – Jakić
Majer
Perišić – Ivanović – Marco Pašalić
Aren’t we going to talk about Dalic not including the two wedding boys in the match day squad?
Dalic really t-bagged Luka Sucic – Sucic thought Dalic forgave him – but he only called him up to spend the game in the stands with Erlic – wonder if they spent the whole 90′ even watching the game or Luka Sucic was giving tips to Erlic, who is planning his wedding before the WC 2026 during preparations phase (he told us in September he checked with Iva), based on how his sister’s wedding went
Really harsh from Dalic to call up Bradaric, but then stick him in the stands b/w the two wedding boys
Anonymous previewed pre-match the naivety, arrogance, and/or laziness of picking the identical line-up/formation that beat them 5-1 (save Jakic for Stanisic) with exact same approach and thinking it will work again
Czech knew Dalic was going to do this – so it was very easy for them to prepare for this match accordingly
Basically, all they had to do is tell Pavel Sulc to stick to Modric the whole game and Croatia had now answer going forward (the reason Croatia looked better near the end was Sulc came off after 76′)
That’s how easy it was for Czech – put Sulc on Modric – Croatia has no other options to attack as everything needs to go through him – and as such we can be super aggressive going forward with limited risk as if they don’t go thru Modric they can’t really counter – and it worked
Liva – was ok, if anything he was trying to do a bit too much to show he’s sharp as e.g. diving to the sides, when the ball was clearly going out of play
Back 4 – they were very good individually, but also collectively – thank goodness – as they saved us as we were bunkered back, especially in the first half
Jakic as RB was very very good – both defensively but also going forward (link up play with Mario, then Marco) and taking on his man 1 vs 1 and his crosses – he was more effective going forward than Josko – that RB is position is his (he’s undroppable right now imo) – not aesthetically pleasing to watch, but very effective and responsible
Sutalo and DCC – very very good – best Anonymous has seen them play (Sutalo was lucky that every time he flopped over with any contact he got a free kick as otherwise if the ref put their whistle away he would have been caught a few times) – glad they played the whole game (would have been a mistake to take one of them off for Vuskovic this game) – that play that was offside but Sutalo tracked back hard to save two balls off the line, wow what defending
Josko – very aesthetically pleasing to watch – defensively so sound – but we needed more from him going forward on the left side – limited link up play with Perisic (compare/contrast to Jakic) – he tried to take it forward a couple of times but was closed down/tackled – we needed his crosses to be better
Petar Sucic – very quiet game – he played again (similar to Faroe) like he is focused on not getting injured on International duty – he should have picked up the slack and become the midfield man since Modric was taking out by Sulc (but that didn’t happen) – he had a shot or two at the edge of the box that were blocked – but he needed to do more and impose himself in the midfield
Modric – couldn’t get away from Sulc they whole game – once Sulc came off at 76′ then he finally found some space to try to accept more passes and take the ball forward – he tried to take the game by the scruff of the neck near the end but was unable to save Croatia yet again (that beautiful pass to Franjo was majestic)
Perisic – was off it, miss those two shots over the bar, but also missed the perfect Marco Pasalic cross with his header in front of goal – he should have pulled himself off much earlier for the betterment of the team
Mario Pasalic – is not a RW – can’t remember anything he did the whole game
Krama – limited impact – as he didn’t have Modric behind him pulling the strings (he tried dropping deep back to our CBs to pick up the ball a couple of times) – that one nice scoop pass to Budimir was really creative
Budimir – game like this shows his limitations – sure he bangs around – but is terribly slow – and offers limited link-up play with his back to goal – limited ability to carry the ball forward (and keep it away from defenders), he wants contact to flop – unless he is standing in the box waiting for a cross to come in he doesn’t really affect the game (and despite his apparent heading ability, has he ever scored a header goal from a Croatia corner? I don’t think so) – technically he’s also off it, there was that one nice scoop pass into the box by Krama and Budi tried to kick if with his left foot but completely missed it – like Jakic he’s not aesthetically pleasing to watch, but unlike Jakic he’s very effective
Franjo and Marco coming on after 60′ – Anonymous couldn’t believe their eyes – was nice to see Dalic recognized it wasn’t working (although – this still didn’t solve the issue in midfield where we needed another body to try to free up Modric or rather be a free body to get the ball from the back) – Marco was so direct – that time he cut in from the right and fired a shot (but was blocked), that beautiful cross (such nice low/direct trajectory) right onto Perisic’s head – Franjo runs a lot, but one issue is his touch/ability to control the ball – it’s very loose at times, meaning he receives the ball but isn’t able to keep it near him and than the defender is able to kick it away (this is similar issue to what Olic had, especially when he was young), he really needs to improve this as he isn’t particularly good at protecting the ball and keeping it at his feet as he runs with it – just too sloppy – also his pressing routes need work as e.g. he’d run full sleep at defender, but defender would take a step in another direction and open up a passing lane and pass it, the purpose of pressing is to cut off passing lanes and force the defender to pass it where they don’t want to
Fruk – nice to see Fruk, but couldn’t really get into the game
*like Jakic he’s not aesthetically pleasing to watch, but unlike Jakic he’s NOT very effective
You say that their tactics worked?? Are you kidding??
They had to win the match to have a realistic chance of coming first in the group. Let me remind you the match finished 0 – 0 and they will be 99.999999 % heading to the play offs.
Where are all the geniuses that said Croatia would go 8-0 in qualifying ? LMAO
Anonymous pointed out – that too many were being unrealistic – and that Croatia has never had a perfect qualifying campaign in it’s history
Also, as such, Anonymous said stop worrying about Pot 1 vs. Pot 2 as unrealistic Croatia would not drop any points
Some never learn
Faroe Islands has only 60,000 people all together it seems. How can they be so good. Pretty amazing! Only 2,000 men of playing age to choose from.
They maybe a problem the way they have been playing
Helps if you play your home matches on a plastic pitch, cold windy weather and a rough plane trip to get there. High turbulence on landing with many people thinking that they will crash land.
However, as you state not many people (more sheep than people) yet they are no longer easy beats especially at home.
The biggest “What If” in this group is if only the Faroe Islands had a bit of luck on their side, they would have been in a great position to qualify.
They lost both away games to Montenegro and Czech in the dying seconds of the match.
They also could have snuck a point on us as well.
They could be second in the group now, heading into a home match against the Czechs.
This seemed like an incredibly physical game in which the ref swallowed the whistle as seen by only three minutes of stoppage
Not physical in the sense of trips etc but physical in that it seemed a massive amount of pushing and pulling was being allowed
I thought this contributed to Croatia never really looking as comfortable as usual with the ball and both teams being completey exhausted by the end as this was running/wrestling cardio combined. You ever seen perisic so tired?
I’ve generally been a proponent of budimir And still am but it was nice to see ivanovic take players on
With the tie, Croatia nearly guarantees a World Cup appearance but their odds for finishing 9th have gone down
Belgium is pretty much locked at 8th so it’s between Croatia, Germany, and Italy.
If Italy or Germany win out now, they’ll surpass Croatia.
If Croatia wins out, AND Germany AND Italy both have a tie in their final 4 games, Croatia will stay at 9.
Current odds are 38 percent down from about 60 percent prior to the game.
Working in favor is that Italy has to play Norway who seem much better than their coefficient that counts for points
A negative is Germany plays Luxembourg twice and those wins will count a lot more than they should
What if Belgium bottles it against Wales (like they usually do)?
Who cares about Italy ?
They only have 10% chance of finishing 1st in their group
Countries that qualify via the PO are all in Pot 4
I agree with some opinions below… Krama, Mario Pašalić, were barely present this game and should have been subbed earlier. We have so many options in Karma’s position Luka Sučić is one for example who loves getting in scoring positions. We need fresh legs in the final third. Both Ivanović and Marco Pašalić should.have started sooner. They should have been subbed at half time.
I don’t know if it is just me, but I am not convinced with Budimir. I know he works hard, and I am not trying to take credit away from him. I know he is the highest scoring striker we have in a top tier league, but I dunno. We need someone younger up there. He did a lot of great work, but at times his ball control seems off. Don’t get me wrong it’s not easy, but still. He doesn’t seem like that kinda player who will take the ball forward for us. I dunno if we have that right now, but I don’t see it with him.
I think Dalic should drop one unessecary call up from the midfield and add a striker or a winger for more options up front.
Igor Matanovic would an ideal replacement for Budimir, but unfortunately, he is not getting a lot of playing time at Freiburg.
As Perisic goes, so goes Croatia. Should had been 2-0.
Listen, we didn’t lose so I can’t complain too much. My only grievance is this team cannot find the net. We still cannot score. We still don’t have that striker. We’re not gonna go anywhere as long as we can’t score. That’s what counts.
Have you been watching any of the games so far?
Take a look at the table posted in the article above. Croatia scores goals. This was a tough match, and Czechia defended very well, even at the end.
Not sure Croatia was “passive.”
In the first half, sure, but there were times in the second half where we ran at them like we were losing.
We weren’t passive, credit has to be given to Czechia in the first half. They pressed hard and did not allow us time on the ball. Second half we were better than them partially because they were physically spent especially towards the end of the match.
Friday morning coaching perspective, If the order was reversed with Ivanovic and Marco Pašalić starting, and they are subbed out for mature players to close out, Croatia would possibly have had a more dynamic first half and maybe went into the half with a lead. The difference in activity was clearly drastic. Not enough time the other way around. Here is to Luka Vuskovic given a chance with Gibraltar.
Usually, Perisic shots are on frame, and require the goalie to perform. Did not seem like he was his best self today.
We need to be dominant our last three games, to give us the best chance to close out @ 9th ranking. Don’t want to start atrophying as in the Ante Cacic days.
Not Croatian soccer content, but some here might appreciate Luka Doncic’s reaction to biting into a wing with the Bomb hot sauce on it, on the new episode of Hot Ones … lol … Starts at about 12:15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzwBq7rvdrM
The Zlatan episode of hot ones is still one of my favorites
Good result for us.
We could lose one of our remaining three games (Gibraltar, Faroe, Montenegro) and we still finish first.
World Cup qualification is essentially a guarantee. Unfortunately, we did lose FIFA ranking points with this draw and we likely can’t make it up with wins against such low-ranked teams in our group. We’ll have to see if Germany, Belgium or Italy continue to choke games, to confirm if we can secure a seed.
I didn’t mind the lineup and strategy. It was a safe lineup, and the strategy to sit back and counter was probably the best call…but not with guys like Krama in the starting eleven. It’s a tough call because of how elite his finishing has been…but we didn’t use the right personnel for this strategy, and it showed with our lack of chances in the first half.
I’m at least happy that Dalic learned to make substitutions (Ivanovic and Marco were the right subs)…but he really probably should have subbed out Krama first (who is the LEAST suited for a counterattacking game against a very physical side).
will this result today put croatia out of pot 1 thanks
Depends on Italy and Germany’s results.
But yea, we lost FIFA ranking points today.
I have read that Morocco is also a chance to overtake us. They won today against Bahrain in a friendly. They have one more friendly match to go.
If they play a strong team from South America like Brazil or Argentina and win that might be enough to overtake us ?
Overall solid performance especially in defence. The result is good and keeps us in a good position for direct qualification. Three games left, we need to beat Gibraltar and Faroes at home and that should be enough to finish first in the group.
Faroes have improved a lot, and they won’t be easy to beat even at home and hopefully they can make things difficult on Sunday for Czechia on their artificial turf.
Modric once again our best player. Perisic, I thought was disappointing today and should have done better with his two shots that sailed over the bar. Livakovic despite not playing for his club was solid in goal today.
Against Gibraltar Dalic should make 4 or 5 changes to the starting 11 and then in the second half bring in another 4 or 5 players that did not play today.
One foot in the door to the WC.
We have a plus 11 differential on the Czechs…and a game in hand. We hammer Gibraltar Sunday to add to that differential.
A win would have been nice, but a draw favors Croatia. The most important thing is that Croatia kept the ball out of our net. Czechia had very few truly dangerous plays that weren’t clearly offside, and Livaković made the saves easily. Dalić made the right substitutions, and the young players he put in played well. The match was tough all around. I think with Kovačić in the game instead of Mario Pašalić, Croatia wins. The missing ingredient was speed, which came in with the substitutions. Franjo was more effective than Perišić on that left side. Marco Pašalić was effective, period. I would like to see a younger #9 brought in too. Budimir did a lot of unseen work wearing out the Czech defense, but we also saw how much speed in the attack improves the result that Modrić and Kramarić can produce with their creativity. It’s time for the younger, faster players to play more, and it’s good to see that they’re integrated into Dalić’s famous system now.
Yeah at the end i thought we were gonna win the game. In the closing stages we looked way more likely to score and we had more speed and urgency after those subs. Perisic was badly gassed for some time.
Still good, regarding group standings , but hope we keep our FIFA 9th place ranking .
I asked the question in ChatGTP. This is what it said:
——————————-
Croatia’s new FIFA ranking total ≈ 1710.4 points
Change: −3.6 points due to drawing a lower-rated opponent (Czech Republic).
——————————-
So, we are currently tied for 9th now.
Before this game we had 1,714 points with Italy behind us with 1,710. Morocco and Germany had 1,706 and 1,704.
Germany plays Luxembourg tomorrow and they will likely move up to 1,708 points (with a win).
If Italy beat Estonia on Sunday, they move up ahead of us by about 3 points (with a win).
Morocco played a friendly against Bahrain today (won 1-0) and that put them up to about 1,708.
Looks like we just slipped into 10th in the FIFA rankings behind Italy with the draw today. If the Germans win out, they get the 9th spot and pot 1 even if we win out. Ideally they slip up but their 4 remaining games at vs Luxembourg x 2, Northern Ireland (away) and Slovakia (home). Oh well, hopefully we get lucky and pull the US in our draw 😁.
Oh well, an awful game, but this draw should be enough to qualify. Gibraltar at home is a guaranteed 3 points and Faroe Islands at home is pretty safe too. Czechs would have to win their last two and overcome an 11 goal difference deficit, which ain’t happening.
Czechs also have to hope that we lose a game too, since we have three more games left (to their two).
Even if we lose one, the Czechs STILL have to overcome the goal deficit to surpass us.
Qualification is pretty much done.
Faroe Islands, impressive win!
Definitely more bite to our attack with Marco P and Ivanovic. The tie is good enough and maybe ruins our Pot 1 chances but that’s ok.
What a pass by Luka to Gvardiol to create that chance. Amazing vision at 40.
our grouping is so bad that when we play bad , we still actually look good.
Well, that was boring.
Perisic put in a performance similar to what he did at the last Euros… which is not great.
On the plus side the team has looked a lot more dynamic since putting in the young guys; Fruk, Ivanovic, Marco P
Čorluka probably convinced Zlatko to put Marco in.
There we go!
Zlatko finally listened to me, LOL!!!
…And Marco with a nice shot already (that unfortunately was partially blocked)
I can’t watch the game but I was afraid that Perisic wouldn’t be as sharp as he had been in our last matches – I saw that he hasn’t performed super well/not played a lot in his last club matches
This is a tough match. I think he picked the right starting lineup, but now that Budimir has roughed the Czechs up a bit, Dalić needs more speed: Marco, Franjo and Toni or Martin
2 Brutal misses by Perisic and Mario P has been almost invisible.
We need speed so hopefully Marco P gets brought on sooner rather than later
As much as I’d like to see Marco, he’s not in Dalic circle of trust.
Wow, he proved me wrong.
Mario is not a creator.
He pounces on chances created by others… But we haven’t really had possession or crested anything.
We should probably just sub him off early in the second half if we continue to play like this.
It’s time to put speedster Marco Paŝalić and Franjo Ivanovic since they will be pressing more in the 2nd half.
Zlatko, for your 100th game, please put aside your petty bias to MLS and get 3 points instead of only 1!!!
1 point still puts us in a commanding position to qualify first.
I don’t think Dalić cares about being a top World Cup seed.
We could be leading by two goals from the two chances Perisic had.
He really should have buried that second chance
Pretty crappy half from us but i guess 0-0 suits us fine so if it stays like this, all good.
Looks like the strategy is to sit back, defend, and hope to play the counter.
Not a bad strategy… but it won’t work with slow guys like Krama and Budimir.
Czech has all the chances, and our forwards are just not quick enough to take advantage with a counter.
Need franjo and Marco P to do this well
Oršić would be a good sub for this game (but he didn’t make the final cut)
Agreed. You need some speed to counter which we lack up front.
What ever happened to calling a blatant offside when it happens vs this playing on and calling it well after!?!? I can see if it’s close but two of those offsides weren’t even close. Isuse.
Yeah i wondered that too – the one Sutalo saved off the line, guy was 2-3 metres offside obviously.
Here we gooooo !
Stream Link
https://for-evesemntv.icu/dec/dec15.php
Anyone else think Bradaric looks like a late teen-age Joey McIntyre from NKOTB?
Doppelgänger
Match day squad
Dalic t-bagged wedding boy Sucic he’s not included
Also Bradaric not in (so zero LB cover for Josko lol)
Erlic not in either (so at least Luka V is ahead of him – so Erlic doesn’t need to stress about his wedding during WC 2026 preparations camp)
Anyone else missing from the match l squad?
Match squad 23 (11+12)
What’s the max allowed – not sure thought it’s 25?
Dalic does with his boys till they rerire pasalic is Kovačić replacement thats that bearing injuries this is the lineup minus pasalic just sub kova at 2026
100% boring, predictable and just lazy line-up
This is exactly the formation and personnel Czech has prepared for
And now they get it
You got to mix it up to keep opponents on their toes and give them what they aren’t expecting
Your a magarac. Dalic beat them 5-1 before.. Think he knows better then you
This is a big game here.
A win pretty much guarantees qualification… and a win pretty much guarantees a top seed at the World Cup.
Czech has some key injuries (more than we do), but a draw does nothing for the Czech… so they will try to score on us and go for the win.
It’s Dalić’s 100th game. There shouldn’t be any weird surprises in the starting eleven… but hopefully he makes the right subs when he needs to.
STREAM:
https://sports100.tv/
4 game winning streak with no PK overtimes, riding on the line. This is unchartered waters. Hope we add another +3-goal differential with a 5th win. Would be nice to have a 20- goal differential over an 8-0 record. Why not? Might propel Croatia into the FIFA top 8 ranking.